Godskull Wiki
Welcome to the Godskull Wiki This is a repository for information about the world of a specific D&D 5e campaign. The World This section is to just collect all the writing I have done about the setting from the various threads and put them all together. TL;DR fairly standard D&D, but post apocalyptic (literally - there was a war between gods), and with magicpunk vibe (e.g. before the apocalypse major cities were connected by teleportation circle transit networks) Overview This is a world of magic, heroes, monsters, and gods. In the past, although there were wars and monsters and unrest, overall it was a fairly stable world, with old traditions and ordered societies. The world today is the postapocalyptic remains of that world. About 200 years ago colossal gods fought a terrible war, and the mortal plane became a battlefield. No human is alive from that war, but some people of the longer lived races were there. But most of the population was destroyed by the gods' war, and of those who survived, many scattered, as the old cities became inhospitable or were leveled, and the very landscape was changed by the divine violence. The world was torn apart. There are still great crevasses that go so deep no light can reach the bottom, from where gods ripped the earth apart. Some of the gods used the souls of living creatures as fuel for their spells, and some of their bodies still roam the world, not quite living and not quite dead, and some can even bring this curse onto others. There are monstrosities and aberrations and fiends in terrifying numbers, many brought as weapons by the gods, and some that were drawn to this plane by the horror of the apocalypse, slipping in through holes the gods carelessly left open. The story begins in Godskull, a small city constructed around the skeletal remains of an unfathomably massive god. What its name was in life is a matter of some debate, but what is known for sure is that its skull alone towers around 60 feet, and that the eerie shifting light cast by its bones keeps the soulless away at night. The Origins of the God War Some prophets had foretold the apocalypse (though not its precise date), and to them it was the final reckoning of long enmities between different gods and factions of gods. Whether there was a specific spark that started the war is still mysterious, with prophets and priests and professors putting forward a variety of conflicting stories. Basically no one but theologians had really believed how truly unimportant the lives of mortals would be to the gods, and so the precise causus belli was sort of obscured to mortals, since it was experienced more as a natural disaster than the actions of thinking beings. Religion Not all of the gods involved in the God War died, so some of them still have worshippers, although after the devastation they caused to the mortal plane, they have a lot fewer worshippers. There are also some gods who were not involved and who survived, but with how few mortals they were able to protect (if they even tried) they too have lost a lot of followers. There are no atheists (atheists are the flat earthers of this world), but a lot of people who are neutral or even actively antagonistic to gods. The End of the God War From the perspective of most mortals the war just sort of stopped. Some gods disappeared in a blinding golden light, many had been killed, and after it had been quiet for a while, and word spread that no one had seen any gods in months, it was just assumed that the war had ended. For a long time after, people kept worrying that it was going to happen again, but now most people believe it really is over. For a while after that was mass starvation, since so much infrastructure and farmland was destroyed. By now granaries are rebuilt and farms replanted. There is still a lot of chaos and uncertainty, but a lot of structure has been created as well. The Before Times Before the apocalypse there were wars and famines and plagues, of course, but over all there was a lot of stability and predictability. If you were around in the before times, what society looked like where you were is largely up to you. What people did before the war: farmers, craftspeople, lawyers, healers, clergy, soldiers, bureaucrats, enchanters, inventors, etc Traveling at night Traveling at night is not a death sentence, but can be very dangerous. If you make a habit of spending nights asleep without sturdy walls around you some morning you're going to not wake up, although if you're particularly unlucky your body might wake up without you in it anymore. Governments and cities There are mostly city states and smaller. Some city states have their eye on expansion, but very few multi-city sovereignties have sprung up yet, since resources are somewhat scarce and the logistics of that kind of control are hampered by the monsters. There are several city states, ranging from Fury Road style warlord encampments to places aspiring to be anarchocommunist utopias; Godskull is somewhere in between, chaotic and subject to some whims of powerful people, but not dystopian (despite the goth backdrop). There are also plenty of smaller enclaves, and a few city states that have their eye on expansion Godskull Godskull is on the larger side of all cities that have grown since the war ended, but not the largest. It is the largest in its immediate region -- there are no larger neighbors close enough to raid it without risking a long trek through monster territory. Jobs The population is much smaller than before the apocalypse, and many old institutions have been replaced or abandoned. So some of the jobs more to do with managing large populations (lawyers, bureaucrats) are much less prevalent. The land has been changed, and mostly not for the more arable, so a larger percentage of people are working at producing food. Scavengers are very common: there is plenty to be found and resold from the pre-apocalypse world, if you're willing to go to the places that haven't been scavenged yet... but many of those places are now home to monsters. And raiders are definitely present: with institutions not reestablished and a general scarcity of resources, some people take advantage of the situation or simply believe themselves to be without any other options. Races Plenty of humans are still around, it's just that it was their great (or great great great) grandparents who were alive during the war itself Technology It's a bit of a magicpunk/thaumatechnic world. All those hacks people think of for how you can use rules-as-written D&D magic to imitate modern technology? Those are around. Networks of wizards casting sending, teleportation circles for mass transit, that sort of thing. Most of the infrastructure for that was destroyed in the god war, but some is being rebuilt, and others are being innovated. Terrain There's a lot more barren rocky desert than there used to be, but all kinds of terrain are around. There are even some forests that appeared in the course of the war -- and some of those have strange ruins in them, because they destroyed the cities they appeared in. Rules This is for all the rules related things I've posted in various places. This is D&D 5e. Character Creation Try to make an important part of your character be something they want very badly -- it can be literally anything, although preferably not something so nebulous as "world peace" (unless your character has very specific ideas about what they need to achieve that) We're making characters in advance. If you want any amount of help, just ask! Knowing the rules is not a prerequisite. Overview: # Starting with level 1 characters # Nothing homebrewed (in terms of game mechanics; flavor can totally be your own!) # If you're using stuff from supplemental books, let me know which ones and if possible give me links/pdfs # Don't use supplemental stuff specifically to make a broken character. # Try to make an important part of your character be something they want very badly Ability Scores We're going to use the point buy or standard array system for ability scores, so don't come at me with those six 18s you swear you rolled �� Option One: Stat Array Just use these values and assign as you see fit: Option Two: Point Buy You get 27 points to spend at these costs: Latest activity Photos and videos are a great way to add visuals to your wiki. Add one below! Category:Browse